At that point her grandfather had laid down his knife and fork. ‘Come on,’ he’d said and, wrapped up in scarves and hats, they had walked down to the cemetery and laid a bough of holly on the steps of the tomb. Sadly, as most Christmas Days she could remember had descended into screaming rows, it had turned out to be one of April’s favourite Christmases.
‘Well, it’s a new year now,’ said Davina. ‘We must be positive and put all that behind us.’
‘Hark at Gandhi,’ muttered Caro, before April elbowed her in the ribs to silence her.
‘Anyway, it’s Valentine’s Day!’ she said, clapping her hands with excitement. ‘You should see all the cards Chessy got.
Come on over,’ said Davina, beckoning April across to the other side of the refectory where the Faces and the rugby boys were lounging. ‘Besides, there’s someone who wants to see you.’
April glanced at Caro who pulled a face. ‘Don’t mind me,’ she said, holding up a trashy gossip magazine, ‘I’ve got some homework to be getting on with.’
April followed Davina to the far side of the hall and her heart jumped as she spotted Gabriel sitting on the edge of a table, his dark hair flopping over his face.
God, he’s beautiful
, thought April, before reminding herself that she was supposed to hate him.
It’s only pretend, remember?
April made a point of turning away from him, her chin raised, a gesture Davina picked up on.
‘Not speaking to Boy Wonder?’ She smiled. ‘I thought you might be all hot and heavy after his big hero act.’
April pulled a face. ‘I’m grateful to him for helping and everything, but that doesn’t change the fact he’s a self-obsessed idiot.’
Davina nodded, clearly loving the drama.
‘Couldn’t agree more,’ she whispered. ‘You can do much better. And on that subject, I said someone wanted to see you.’
‘Who?’
‘Hi, April,’ said Benjamin, stepping forward and pushing his hair out of his eyes. If Gabriel was beautiful, Benjamin Osbourne wasn’t far behind. His shaggy blond hair and blue eyes looked like they came straight off a catwalk. ‘You’re looking great.’
‘Oh, thanks,’ said April, slightly embarrassed. It felt weird being complimented by another boy within earshot of Gabriel, but she knew she had to keep up the pretence.
‘You’re, erm, not too bad yourself,’ she said, wincing at how lame she sounded, but Benjamin didn’t seem to notice. He took her by the elbow and led her to one side.
‘Listen, April, I just wanted to say how sorry I was about Marcus,’ he said.
‘What? Don’t be silly, it wasn’t your fault.’
‘Well, I feel bad about it. I should have seen the signs.
He always had something against you for some reason, but I thought he was just jealous.’
‘Jealous?’ she asked. ‘Jealous of what?’
Benjamin smiled, but not his usual confident smile. This was timid, he was unsure of himself. ‘You must know,’ he said quietly.
April was amazed. She had guessed that Benjamin liked her a bit, but she assumed he was just flirting with her because that’s what he did with all the girls. Maybe he really
liked
her. Then again, maybe it was this damn Fury thing. April had good reason to suspect Benjamin Osbourne was a vampire – why wouldn’t he be? He was gorgeous and his sister was pure evil – and the Fury was designed to attract vampires to her, like some twisted Venus fly-trap.
Ben looked as if he was about to speak, then glanced away.
‘Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. You and Gabe have a thing going on.’
‘Had. Past tense,’ said April, resisting the urge to look back at Gabriel. ‘I mean I’m grateful for what he did, but we’re not married or anything.’
Play the game
, she said to herself.
You’ve got to distance yourself from Gabriel
. She turned to Ben and touched his hand.
‘Thanks for checking on me though, that was sweet,’ she said, ‘I know this must have been hard for you too, Ben. Marcus was your friend, wasn’t he?’
Ben shrugged.
‘Only because I clearly misjudged him.’
‘He hasn’t been in touch?’
‘I don’t think I’d be the first person he’d call, not when he went crazy at my Christmas party and almost killed someone I … someone … well, he knew I thought highly of you.’
April raised her eyebrows.
‘I didn’t think boys talked about girls like that. I thought you spent all your time talking about football and cars.’
Ben smiled.
‘We make an exception every now and then.’
She touched his arm again and flashed him a small smile, wondering if Gabriel would see.
‘Thank you for your concern, Ben. It’s sweet.’
She walked back to her table, head held high, deliberately ignoring Gabriel as she passed him.
‘You’ll never believe what just happened,’ she whispered to Caro. ‘Benjamin Osbourne just …’ but April could see her friend wasn’t listening. She was staring at the other side of the room, her face like thunder.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘Look at the new king and queen of the Faces.’
Across the room a dark, handsome boy and a Chinese girl with long hair were holding court, surrounded by amused onlookers. The girl was Ling Po, who had been the archetypal nerd just a few months ago, with thick glasses and clumpy shoes. Then she’d been adopted by Davina and her friends, and now she was one of them: shiny hair, perfect make-up and designer clothes. She was talking to Simon, one of Caro’s oldest friends. All through school, Simon had been a rebel and an outsider just like Caro, but in the past few weeks he had started hanging out with the Faces and rugby boys and now he dressed and spoke just like them.
‘Look at Little Miss Hilarious. You wouldn’t know she had been the geekiest girl in school before she got all vamped up.’
‘Shhh!’ said April. She pulled Caro up and dragged her outside, banging through a fire door and out into the playground where they wouldn’t be overheard.
‘Caro, you’ve got to be more careful! You can’t go around saying things like that.’
‘Well,’ said Caro sulkily, ‘it annoys me, her swanking around showing off like she’s some sort of diva.’
‘Look, I know Simon was your friend, but you have to remember the vamps have seduced both of them. Don’t underestimate the Suckers’ power.’
‘What power?’ snapped Caro. ‘I mean, it’s not like those old Dracula movies where the evil vampire hypnotises the virgin and bites her against her will, is it? We’re always talking
about how the Suckers have this terrible supernatural power, but it’s not supernatural at all, is it? They’re just giving them makeovers. Come and join our gang, be as cool as us. Dress like us and talk like us and you too can have what we have. It’s pathetic.’
‘But you can’t blame them for that, they just want to fit in.’
‘Who cares about fitting in?’ snapped Caro. ‘Simon was cool without those scum-suckers. He was cool because he was Simon. Th
at’s
what upsets me. He’s decided that being The Same is better than being Him.’
April gave a rueful smile and stroked Caro’s arm.
‘Sorry, honey. You really love him, don’t you?’
Caro’s cheeks immediately flamed red. ‘Shut up, April, that’s not what this is about! It’s a matter of principle. I’m asking you if these people are worth saving.’
‘Yes!’ shouted April, surprised by how passionate she felt. ‘Yes they are. I know you’re angry with Simon, but everyone’s worth saving. It’s one thing to be angry with someone, but it’s another to abandon them to some horrible fate. No, we don’t know exactly what the Suckers are up to, but we can be fairly sure they’re not arranging a tea party. Simon could have his throat torn out – do you want that?’
Caro glanced at her, then looked down at her hands.
‘No … I suppose not.’
‘So don’t be so hard on him. It’s not all fun for him either – remember when I found poor geeky Ling crying in the toilets after they sucked the blood out of her? You can’t blame her for wanting to be one of them rather than being prey. It’s those kids we have to save.’
‘Okay. Sorry. But sometimes I wish we didn’t have to do this.’
April smiled.
‘Who else is going to save the universe?’
Caro shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. ‘Well neither of us, if we freeze to death out here talking about it.’
‘Come on, let’s go back in,’ said April, linking her arm through Caro’s.
Just before the doors, Caro stopped.
‘Listen, don’t be mad,’ she began.
‘What is it?’
‘You know how I said I had a plan … how to get in with the Suckers a bit more?’
‘Yessss …?’ April said suspiciously.
‘Well, um, I’ve arranged something. A party. A sort of coming-out party for you to celebrate your recovery. And your birthday.’
April gaped at her. She had no idea anyone knew it was her birthday.
‘Where? When?’
‘It’s tonight. At Davina’s. She was going to have some sort of Valentine’s Ball anyway and she loved the idea of turning it into a surprise birthday party for you.’
April’s heart sank. The last thing she felt like doing was having a party, especially at the place she had almost been killed.
‘I’m so sorry A, I know you won’t want to go back there so soon,’ Caro said in a rush, ‘but we need to get closer to the Suckers, to infiltrate and play them at their own game. I even thought we might be able to find the
Albus Libre
there, seeing as they have a big library and everything …’ She trailed off.
‘It seemed like a good idea a few days ago, but now you’re here, I wish I’d never suggested it.’
April forced a smile.
‘It’s okay. It’s fine. We’ll have a great time playing pin the tail on the monster.’
Caro laughed with relief.
‘Well, it’s funny you should say that …’
April was pretty sure she’d never have a career as a Hollywood star. She spent the next lesson feeling completely sick after her debut performance playing the part of a girl who didn’t care about Gabriel Swift. She knew that it was necessary to protect both of them, but that didn’t mean she had to like it – and she certainly hadn’t liked the way Gabriel was throwing himself into it. While she’d been talking to Ben, he’d been flirting with other girls. But April trusted him – she
had
to. They were both in danger here, literally surrounded by undead monsters who would tear them apart if they suspected anything. God, but it hurt to do. She had hoped for some shared smile across the room, but she had barely dared look in his direction.
Be strong, April
, she scolded herself.
It’s only a game
. But it was a game with the highest possible stakes and she wasn’t completely sure she could take the pressure.
As she doodled in her notebook, too preoccupied to tune in to the lesson at all, April found herself looking across at Benjamin. Did he really like her? He had certainly seemed sincere.
But he’s a vampire, April
– he could easily be playing his own elaborate game, couldn’t he? She watched him as took notes, his blue eyes cast down, unaware that she was staring at him. There was something knowing, beautiful, even frightening about Ben. He was certainly pretty cocky most of the time, but he could also be vulnerable. Which wasn’t something you could say about Gabriel, who was always so strong and reserved … until now, of course. Now it killed April to see him struggling with pain and illness, frightened to go back to a way of life he hated, too proud to admit he was suffering.
The moment the bell rang, April grabbed her satchel and was up and out of the classroom. She knew what she had to do; she was going to find Gabriel. Okay, so they needed to play their roles in public, but if she couldn’t see him in secret, feel him in her arms, kiss him, she thought she might snap.
He might be dead soon
, she thought,
why should we be spending what little time we have apart? Screw the danger
.
April was striding down the corridor, determined to get to the school gates before Gabriel had a chance to leave. She turned the corner towards the main entrance and was suddenly grabbed from behind.
‘Hey, what—’ she said, but before she had time to protest she was pulled sideways into an empty classroom, stumbling into a desk. As she whirled around, April immediately saw her abductor: Layla, her arch enemy, the Face who had been dating Milo, the vampire who died. Not that Milo had told her he was seeing Layla when he kissed her, the blood-sucking rat. Layla had never had any proof that April and Milo had kissed, but she had always hated April – maybe she had some sixth sense about what had really happened. Certainly she was now glaring at April with undisguised spite. No, it wasn’t spite, it was something else.
‘What do you want?’ demanded April. ‘Let me go.’
‘Shut up,’ hissed Layla pushing the door closed behind them and locking it. ‘I don’t want any of them hearing.’
‘Any of who?’ Layla looked agitated and edgy, not quite in control of herself. April took a step away from the girl, out of reach of her talons, but Layla made no move towards her. In fact, April noticed that Layla’s nails were all bitten right down. Somehow that detail was more disturbing than being cornered by a girl she knew hated her. Layla was one of the top Faces; Hell would freeze over before they let their manicure regimes slip. What the hell was going on?